An unwarranted addition to classic carbonara

SIR – As a food lover, trained chef and home cook, I too was horrified by the New York Times’s suggestion of adding tomato to the classic carbonara (Features, February 2).

As you point out, the recipe was rightly denounced when it first appeared in 2021, and it should have remained in the bin. There is plenty of tomato in Italian food already. David Brooks York

The Pasta Eater, by an unknown 19th-century artist, hangs in Rome’s pasta museum